Ch. 23: Rumors
"There's a rumor going around the office," Martina says, "that you accidentally deleted a bunch of data from the server. Everyone is panicking and checking their own files." She hesitates.
"Well, what else?" Andrew asks. It's obvious to both of us that she's holding something back.
"The debate seems to be whether you're just stupid, or if you have some agenda and are trying to sabotage your grandfather's law firm."
She steps further into the room, her face showing clearly how upset she is. "And you know if it got back to me, then everyone is talking about it. I mean, normally, nobody would say something bad about you to my face because they know how I'd react."
"What did you tell them?" Andrew asks, while I just sit there, stunned. So the lawyers in the firm where I'll soon be the only equity partner besides my grandfather think I'm either stupid or malicious?
"I said it was ridiculous," Martina says, her eyes flashing with anger at the suggestion, "and that it looked like someone had hacked into your laptop, but that no one else's files were affected and you certainly didn't do it."
My grandfather nods. "Good job."
He turns to me. "Hadley, we need to put a stop to this kind of speculation right away, and redirect it toward the real issue here. Whether we have someone right here in our law firm who is putting all of our careers at risk."
"I agree," I say, but before I can say anything further, Martina speaks up.
"Mr. Reese, it's Dylan Barclay. I'm sure of it."
He nods. "From what Hadley has shared with me, Martina, I tend to agree with you. But I'm not about to make an accusation I can't back up with facts."
He drums his fingers on the desk for a moment, then picks up his phone and buzzes his legal assistant, tells her to send out an email to all attorneys and staff that there's a mandatory meeting in the conference room in 5 minutes.
"Just because I'm refraining from making a direct accusation at this point," he says, "doesn't mean I'm going to just sit back and take this. Time to set some wheels in motion."
* * *
Andrew, Martina and I head over to the main conference room immediately. Andrew positions himself at the head to table in his usual spot, with me on his right. Martina takes a seat behind me in one of the extra chairs that line the wall. Steve from IT comes in next and sits at my grandfather's left. We wait as the rest of the lawyers and staff file in.
Dylan positions himself about halfway down the side of the table. He's sitting next to CJ, and I notice him leaning over to whisper something in their ear. CJ's face is impassive except for a slightly raised eyebrow, and they make a point of not looking directly at me.
At the moment, I don't have any way to gauge whether my conversation with CJ had any impact. I'm hoping they will at least be skeptical of any more rumors Dylan tries to spread.
Everyone seems to be having little side conversations in low voices, and I can only assume from the sidelong glances that they are all talking about me.
"I'll be brief," my grandfather says, and the room, now filled with lawyers and staff, quiets down immediately.
"I know you all have plenty of work to get back to and I apologize for interrupting your day, but we have a serious matter to deal with. As some of you may have already heard, Hadley's laptop was hacked into and someone obtained access to a number of client files. From what we've been able to ascertain, the damage was limited to several of Hadley's clients." He looks to his left. "Steve?"
"We are in the process of recovering the deleted files, and yes, I can confirm that no one was affected but Ms. Jones."
There are some murmurings in the room, but my grandfather just lifts his hand to silence them.
"Steve, have you determined how this was done?"
Steve nods. "Most likely, someone obtained physical access to Ms. Jones' laptop and installed an app that gave them access from outside the firm. We're removing that now, and doing other forensic work to make sure nothing else was added."
One of the lawyers in the firm - Miguel - speaks up. "Steve, are we sure there's no virus that could be affecting the rest of the server?"
"We've ruled out that possibility," Steve saves, and a sigh of relief sweeps through the room.
Dylan is staring at me with a smirk on his face, and I've had it.
"Is there something you wanted to say, Dylan? You look like you have an opinion on this."
"I'm just wondering if you might have just accidentally deleted some files. Are we sure there even was a hacker?"
"Were you paying attention to what Steve said?" my grandfather asks, his tone brusque, before I have a chance to respond. "Someone manually loaded a program on Hadley's laptop. This was no accident." He moves his gaze around the room, looking at each lawyer seated at the conference table in turn.
"If someone attacks one of us, they attack all of us." He pauses. "And from what Steve has just reported, it's clear that attack is coming from the inside."
There's a collective gasp.
"Someone here in the office," he continues, "got physical access to Hadley's laptop. I'm instructing all of you to lock your laptops in your desk when you leave for the day, and lock your office door. If you take your laptop home with you, make sure you secure it there as well."
"You don't seriously believe all our files are at risk, do you?"
It's Dylan, and he's still got traces of that smirk on his face. I'm sure more than ever that he's responsible for this.
"I certainly do," my grandfather says. "And while Steve is taking steps to ensure this never happens again, everyone still needs to be vigilant." His voice hardens. "I don't know who's behind this. Yet. But when I do find out, they will be fired and arrested. And if it's a lawyer, I'll be making a complaint to the Florida Bar and I hope they lose their license. As soon as this meeting is over, I'm filing a police report."
There's an uncomfortable silence, and then CJ speaks up. "Are you sure that's wise? Once you notify the police, the fact that we've had a security breach will be public knowledge. I'm concerned about our reputation in the legal community, and backlash from clients who may be worried about the security of their own files."
Andrew nods. "You raise a valid point, CJ, but I realize it would be a waste of time to try to keep this under wraps. This many people" - he gestures expansively - "can't keep a secret. So it's better to get ahead of the story, make the announcement ourselves. I'm contacting our public relations firm, and we'll have an email prepared for you all to send to your clients tomorrow morning.
"The upside," he continues, "is we caught this before any real damage was done, and before it spread to other files in the office."
He looks around the room again. "I asked everyone here today - not just the lawyers - so that I can tell you all to be extra vigilant. Someone right here in this room wants to damage the firm I've spent close to 40 years building, and I will not tolerate it. Whoever you are, I will find you."
I gaze around the room. Dylan looks cocky, which is to be expected. Some of the other lawyers are looking down at the table, while others are glancing around the room. No one is looking at me.
CJ appears to be either texting or making notes on their phone, but when Dalton leans closer to look, they turn the phone over and set it down on the table.
One of the paralegals from the real estate department raises her hand and my grandfather nods to her.
"Mr. Reese, what exactly should we be looking for?"
"That's a good question, Quinn. Anyone who isn't where they're supposed to be. Since we believe Hadley's laptop was physically accessed, you should report it to me if you find anyone at your desk who shouldn't be there, or in one of the attorneys' offices. Steve?"
"Let me know immediately if any of you notice something unusual on your computer. For example, an increase in pop-ups, or if the software seems to be processing more slowly than usual."
Hank, one of the lawyers in mergers and acquisitions shakes his head. "I don't like the idea of all of us spying on each other. This used to be a work environment where everyone felt at home."
Before I showed up is what it feels like he's suggesting.
"And it will be again," my grandfather says. "But we can't pretend this didn't happen."
"I'm still not clear on how this could have happened." It's Dylan. Of course he has an opinion. But I'm not sure why he's calling attention to himself, since he knows very well that he's the person Martina and I found sitting behind my desk, and the most likely suspect for tampering with my computer.
Is he trying to goad me into accusing him in front of the rest of the firm?
Then he looks directly at me.
"Why don't you just admit it, Hadley?"
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top